What is hope? I mean real hope, the kind of hope that stirs your heart to faith and to praise. The kind of hope that makes you cry when you look in the face of it. The kind of hope that makes you jump high, sing without ceasing and causes you to embrace the difficult, mount the unmountable, think the unthinkable and do the undoable!!!! That kind of hope that stirs you in the midst of darkness and causes you to sing like a Nightingale and dance like a ballerina. The kind of hope that makes your heart strong and weak all at the same time. The kind of hope that is full and tangible and the kind of hope that rescues you, refocuses you and enables you to have a greater perspective. The kind of hope that draws one to the light, makes you embrace a new day, sing a new song. The kind of hope that makes you love more extravagantly and live more victoriously - that kind of hope that causes a grown woman to dance in the rain . The kind of hope that causes you to be ship-wrecked, persecuted, misunderstood, cast out, cast down, trampled on and yet still sing a song to be heard above all sounds and cause those around to take notice because of the purity of its notes. A song so pure that the very notes of it creates praise in the midst of adversity, bringing glory to a good God from a place of poverty and pain. That can tell a story with the glance of an eye and reveal true character that can only be created by Jesus - the one who loves us completely.
I know that hope. I have seen that hope. I live that hope to see lives redeemed - the broken made whole. The sick healed, the downtrodden raised to new heights where the outside of the vessel is tarnished, broken, cast away and forgotten and God has embraced the heart that has reached out to Him in brokenness and loss and created, just for Him, pure, beautiful and undefiled praise. Where the circumstances are shocking and the reality of poverty has broken the very essence of all the worth God gave when he made us in his image. In this He created for himself something so beautiful, something so lovely, something so rich and enticing: He created hope for the hopeless, giving rise to extravagant praise - true praise not based on anything external but on the wealth given by a Saviour to a failing heart. That kind of hope that leaves one astounded and full of courage, the kind of hope that has embraced loss and is teaching a weak heart to trust in Him and His infinite goodness again. The kind of hope that takes a wounded heart and makes it sing again. The wonderful ability of a creator God to bring life and lay upon an orphan a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Wow! What a wonderful Jesus. I know that hope. I have seen that hope. Where only a Creator, loving God could reach into the heart of a broken child and enable them to know that are perfectly loved. I know that God who can do that. I have seen him do that. I see him do that all the time in the lives of our orphans and widows. What a privilege it is to watch a creative miracle bring life and hope and love in the midst of adversity.
